We have all heard our parents say the line “You [and your siblings] are the best thing that has ever happened to me.” While this statement is true, parenting is more than just sunshine and happiness. There are many sacrifices that often accompany becoming a new parent.

One sacrifice that pregnant women often face is in regards to education. Because education requires a large sum of money and time that some women feel they cannot allocate after the birth of their child. Many women find being pregnant in college too hard to complete their education. While I would never suggest abandoning your duties as a parent, it might be possible to be a mother and complete your education. That’s the hope that led to the creation of websites, such as pregnantoncampus.org and pregnantscholar.org.

Pregnant on Campus Initiative

In fact, that’s the belief behind the Pregnant on Campus Initiative. This initiative is a collection of resources intended for pregnant college students studying in the United States. The initiative has web pages for universities in each state. Some of the information found on this website that may benefit college students is:

List of grants and foundations to help fund your education

Clothing/food assistance

Child care

Insurance

List of websites that provide moral support for pregnant women

In addition to the individual pages for the universities/colleges, the Pregnancy on campus initiative also has a blog. The blog provides council to pregnant women that is intended to provide helpful advice for pregnant women.

You may visit the website here. To find information pertinent to Utah, click over the state of Utah. It will open a new tab with the lists of universities with a website in Utah. Currently, only University of Utah is the only university with a web page, but the majority of the information applies to the state of Utah in general.

The Pregnant Scholar

Professors Mary Ann Mason (University of California, Berkeley) created The Pregnant Scholar in part to help pregnant students understand their rights under Title IX. The website breaks down the policy into different categories that are relevant to college students, such as the requirement of excused absence for pregnancy, childbirth, and similar events.

To view the relevant information yourself, go to pregnantscholar.org. Info can be found by scrolling down to “Key Facts”on this webpage and also pressing the link “For Students and Postdocs.”

At Stance BYU we support all things family, including the many families who have children while still completing their education. Our hope is that these websites will provide valuable resources for these families and that Stance continues to support the family in any situation.

1 Comment

Interesting that you would say this, Laura. I was pregnant throughout my PhD coursework and while I worked on my dissertation. There is nothing easy about doing it – especially when you throw in morning sickness. I just found that I had to pace my coursework so that I could care for my babies and children and be a student. It didn’t hurt that my husband did help as well – except for the nursing part :). Twenty-four years later I am glad I did it. Again, it was incredibly hard and I had to carefully balance time and energy so that those things that matter most to me – my family – came through the experience with me as happy healthy little people.